Behind the beautiful color of the flames, there is a complex chemical process behind it. The process involves the Bohr theory and jumping electrons. The process and explanation are as followed:
The Bohr theory of the atom says that electrons occupy only one energy level at a time. Atoms with enough energy “jump” to higher, less stable, energy levels. When atoms lose energy they “fall” back to the lower, more stable energy levels. These two types of energy, “falling” and “jumping” are emitted though photon electromagnetic radiation. If the energy is visible light, then the color of the light depends on if the atoms are “jumping” or “falling”. These moving atoms are excited and produce specific lines in its spectrum. A flame test excites these atoms and knocks the ones residing in the higher, less stable levels down to lower energy levels, changing the color of the flames..
To do a flame test you need nichrome wire loop, 50-mL, hydrochloric acid (6.0 M), lab burner and solutions to test. You also need basic markers to label each and a beaker to hold each solution.
First you get your solutions and label them with a maker on their containers. Then you get a beaker containing 10 mL of 6.0 M hydrochloric acid (6.0 M HCl) and a nichrome wire loop and light the burner. Remember, that before you do any test you must determine the color of the clean wire. To do this you nichrome wire loop, dip it in the 6.0 M HCl and hold it over the flame for a few moments. The color that you see will indicate that the nichrome wire loop is clean. You should see this color every time to clean the nichrome wire loop. To clean the nichrome wire loop, dip it in the 6.0 M HCl and hold it over the flame, when you see the color you got the first time, the wire is clean. You must do this after each flame test before you can start the next one so that you don’t affect the colors of the last one
You start testing the flame colors of one solution and work you way to all seven. To do this you do this by dipping the clean nichrome wire loop into a solution and holding it over the flame. The color of the flame you see is the burn color of the solution you are testing. Watch out; don’t think that the solution yields oranges when the orange is just the color of the flame. In my own lab test the colors of the flames relate to the solutions that were burned. I used barium nitrate, copper nitrate, strontium nitrate, lithium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sodium chloride and calcium nitrate, all solutions that are very colorful and reactant to the color flame test. Barium, strontium, lithium, sodium chloride and potassium produced warm color flame that ranged from pink to red to yellow. Copper and potassium produced cool color flames, copper producing green flames and potassium producing a purple flame.
